DEADMAN WONDERLAND THE COMPLETE SERIES

 
Deadman Wonderland The Complete Series
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: 18
Running Time: 325 Mins
Audio: English 5.1 & Japanese DD2.0
Release Date: 9/9/2013
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes

After a mystery man, known as the Wretched Egg, or red man kills several highschoolers in a classroom, and shoves a red shard crystal into Ganta's chest. Ganta is the only one left alive and gets framed for their murder and sent to Deadman Wonderland, a maximum security prison with a difference. All the prisoners are called deadmen as they are all hardened criminals who are due to be executed, and Ganta is treated like one of them even though he is innocent.


 Ganta has no choice but to live among infamous serial killers, rapists and informants. He keeps on protesting his innocence, yet no one believes him and to add insult to injury, he has to take part in the games in Deadman Wonderland where part of the prison has been turned into a theme park the public come to see the lifers fight and die - but only if they are lucky do they get to live and fight again. It is an eternal hell none of them can escape from, not even Ganta, who more than anything else wants to.

When you see Ganta enter the prison you get to thinking he doesn't stand a chance against the other inmates as he's weak, innocent and convinced some mysterious man is out to get him. None of the other inmates know what he is talking about either, except a young naked girl, Shiro who is covered in strange swirls that hide her scars underneath a bodysuit. She tries to guide him around the place, and if she can, get him out of harms way, but she doesn't always succeed as the prisoners who meet him want to beat him up as he's the weakest in there.

The thing is, no matter what happens to an inmate, they don't die and Ganta finds this out one night when one prisoner dies trying to help him from the other bullies - he sees him again later on sat in a hospital bed very much alive and, it seems well. Ganta doesn't understand what is going on in there until he tells him about the collar around his neck that constantly injects poison into his bloodstream, and the wrapped candies he must eat if he wants to stay alive. These can be traded and depending on how good a fighter you are and how much you win in the games, you get to eat a lot of these, even if they do taste awful at first.

Deadman Wonderland Complete Series is one of the most unusual anime to reach these shores in a while as it is ultra violent, horror filled and at times has a dark humour of its own. When you watch this you don't expect the twists and turns or what happens to each of the characters as a result of the circumstances. The only way Ganta can fight against the others in the arena is to use the crystal shard in his chest as it helps him to use his blood to attack his enemies. Those who remember watching Speed Grapher will have seen antagonist Choji Suitengu use his own blood as a weapon there as well.  If you liked the sheer horror of Shiki, and the bloodletting in Hellsing, this might just be the anime of choice at the moment.

Bonus Material: Commentary for Episodes 6 and 12, Promo Videos,  Original Commercials, U.S. Trailer,  Textless Opening Song, Textless Opening Song (Director’s Version) ,Textless Closing Song, and Trailers for other anime series.

Verdict: This is a gore-fest of unimaginable proportions - just when you thought Japanese style horror couldn't get any scarier - this comes out!